Thursday, May 17, 2007

William Fritz, son of Cheshire's state Rep. Mary Fritz, is apparently not the only Fritz at the MaGuire Company.

(But first to recap... MaGuire was the inspection company hired for the I-84 fiasco that may ultimately cost CT taxpayers millions of dollars... not to mention that, according to the Feds, driving that stretch of highway may now be dangerous due to potential highway collapses. William Fritz was the Lead Inspector for MaGuire on the job. He is now being sued by AG Blumenthal in relation to the debacle. Also see this week's Herald for a good synopsis, including their "spot on" editorial.)

four Maguire Group employees have already donated to the "Kopetz for First Selectman" campaign: John Treichel (VP, but listed as "engineer"), Alan Asikainen (VP of the water resources division, but listed as "engineer"), James Fritz (executive VP, but listed as "engineer"), and Sebastian Amenta (VP, but listed as "engineer").

I was curious. Of interest to me was what I found when I googled "James Fritz Maguire." According to that webpage, there is a "James Fritz" who works for McGuire and lives in the zip code 06489... Southington. And this website lists an Executive VP of the Maguire Group with the name "James Fritz."

Does Rep. Fritz have a brother who works as an Executive VP at the Maguire Group?

If so, is the I-84 fiasco a Fritz family affair... with Maguire employing both a nephew as the lead inspector and an uncle as an Executive VP?

Unlike many other state legislators, Rep. Fritz does not appear to have yet made any public statements regarding the I-84 debacle... at least not on her official state website, nor during (what I saw of) today's CT-N televised press conference in Hartford.

Nonetheless, I'm eagerly awaiting her plans to rectify the situation going forward, ensuring that no more of these projects go so drastically wrong. And I hope that statement comes soon. While the DOT claims there are no short term safety concerns... they no longer have any credibility on this issue. So action needs to be taken expeditiously.

Having said all that, I still can't understand why the Governor has yet to terminate DOT Commissioner Ralph Carpenter.

Tim you have uncovered nothing that would lead anyone to believe that there is any wrong doing.How about the money you took from the Dentists to help in your election against vickie. Why did yoiu take that money. why not post that little document on the web so we can see you were willing to do anything to beat her and she schooled you. Goes around comes around pal.

Again, Anon.11:01 can’t refute the facts and evidence cited in Tim’s post, so he throws up a smokescreen by trying to change the subject.

In fact, the dentists’ contributions to Tim’s ’06 campaign are posted for the world to see on the Secretary of State’s website -- completely above-board and legal (unlike I-84 dealings). Tim agreed with the dentists and opposed Vickie Nardello’s proposal to allow unqualified dental hygienists to perform dentistry. For Tim it was a principled matter of public safety. But this has all been publicly discussed before; it’s nothing but a smokescreen in this discussion.

Bottom line: AG Blumenthal is investigating and suing members of the Fritz family and the Maguire Corp. for “irregularities” related to I-84. Democrat Blumenthal is a straight shooter (unlike Anon. 11:01/ 11:36/ 12:33 who’s blindly partisan).

Bottom line: As pointed out above, “the dentists didn't squander $60 million taxpayer dollars on a road that started falling apart before it was finished.”